So this is a good one. I am simply trying to add my new FRC Certificate to my U/L License. I paid the fee on line, sent everything to REC BOS, including my current Drug Free Certificate. Any guess this is good enough?? I would take the under.
Nope, NMC will not accept a current Drug Free Certificate issued by my Union. It must be on a letter head. So let me get this right. Port State Control, ie. USCG will accept my current Drug Free Certificate during my Vessels US inspection but thats not good enough for the wonderful NMC?
FYI, I miss Mr Conway at the BOS REC so much. Sen Robert Bird really screwed us Mariners. And they wonder why young people aren’t interested in jumping thru all these hoops to go to sea!!!
NMC Drug Testing requirements (Drug Testing). You can use options one, two, or three. A certificate from the Union stating you passed the Drug Test does not work unless it is signed by the MRO which it isn’t. Read the Drug Test requirements as this is nothing new.
What you have to do, if the Union doesn’t readily have it, is write or email the testing lab to get the Drug Free Certificate. Include Name, SSN, Date of Test, Specimen ID, and your address.
Not for nutten, if my Drug Free Certificate is good enough for the USCG in all US Ports during their many Port State Control Inspections, why is it not good enough for the NMC?? Just saying!
I just started renewing my medical certificate starting Dec 20, 2021 and the NMC is staffed with banjo playing, pie face idiots. I hadn’t heard anything from them by Jan 7 so I emailed the help line with my reference # and got a reply for me to fill out the 719k and then they can help me. I get emails: Jan 18 say they received my information and are evaluating it, Jan 19 accepted it, Jan 20 mailing it and I should get in 10 days. Fourteen days go by and no certificate. I call Feb 4th get a nice idiot who says there is no record of me renewing my certificate after I gave her my MMD ref # and she says to make sure my 719k was sent to the correct address. I immediately call again after finding the reference number of my issuance from the email and “voila” it had been mailed and returned to the NMC due to incorrect address. My MMC documents for 17 years have gone to my PO Box in New Hampshire without issue and now some incompetent fool sends it to my house street address. The USPS doesn’t deliver on my street, which is in a small village with houses in grid like any big city. Another ax I’d like to grind with another bureaucracy. I’ll check my mail on Feb 10th and see if it is there.
Noting the title of the discussion, NMC is part of the Coast Guard, so it isn’t NMC vs. the USCG. Chief Seadog is correct, NMC is appropriately applying the regulations. That others may view them differently does not mean that NMC is wrong. Note also that the requirements at issue for both may be different, so it may not be an appropriate comparison.
Having just filled out the 719K myself I’d note that it requires your street address and then has a specific section under that for a separate mailing address with a box you must check if you want it mailed there…out of curiosity did you do that?
Jump through hoops? The NMC website couldn’t be anymore clear on what is required for a drug test. There’s a checklist, a FAQ, links to the CFR, even an optional form just so you don’t screw it up.
Just because people don’t read the requirements doesn’t mean the evaluators are idiots for enforcing them.
Just like the original post, you are faulting the peons who are following the rules. Notwithstanding what the “I” stands for, the TWIC is not considered an identity document.
I am not faulting any individual, nor did i complain to them. That system in place for renewing the TWIC card does not allow the TWIC to be used as ID seems odd to me.